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Old 24 Jan 2011, 12:48 (Ref:2819847)   #728
chernaudi
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chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!chernaudi has a real shot at the championship!
I think that Audi went with Fassler and Timo because of them having a relative lack of date clashes--it seems that they wanted Rocky in the other car for a full season.

Allan and TK isn't much of a surprise, though, based on PLM and Zhuhai last year.

And of course, Audi are dodging the question of the R15 and what they'll do to it at Sebring. However, a lot of that is the fault of the ACO--will the grandfathered cars have equality, at least on paper, with the newer cars, or will it be like '05, where often times the newer cars had a clear advantage, at least in sprint races?

Hopefully some questions about the R15, and especially the R18, will be answered this week, though I do wonder what photog will have the will to stand out in the rain all day, as there is rain predicted for at least part of 3 days for the Audi test?

And if the R15 is caught with wider wheel bulges, and perhaps a modified front diffuser, we can't jump to conclusions, as just because they're testing it, doesn't mean they'll race it(and if the Audi PR is taken at face value, that means that the cars will be mostly in 2010 spec, with little else done to them, though again Audi tends to be tight lipped about anything with Peugeot and AMR reading/listening, until were close enough to the event for them to do anything to counter Audi). We might even see some bits on the R18 that might go or be used later.

And one question about Bernhard. He seemed to struggle the most with the R15, aside from Primat, but he did an excellent job in the RS Spyder. Since the R18 is more or less a closed LMP2 on steriods (wider tires, and perhaps more power), are Audi hoping that his experience with the LMP2 cars will help them?
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